Of 40 topping choices, the most popular are rainbow sprinkles and cookie dough.

Customers can suggest flavors, participate in an annual review and provide feedback on the website.

They use red and white tiles in the decor specifically because this requires the employees to keep the stores extra clean.

Why they're No. 1: In Orange County for 28 years, Golden Spoon has produced "proven products and concepts that customers like," says David Villafana, vice president of operations. Golden Spoon's 54 flavors are rotated throughout the year, with about 18 flavors served monthly.

Claim to fame: The goal is to make frozen yogurt that tastes like ice cream but has the nutritional benefits of yogurt. To keep it healthy, Golden Spoon has an average of just 25 calories per fluid ounce for nonfat flavors and 29 calories per fluid ounce for low-fat flavors. Grade A skim milk adds ice-creamlike texture to the yogurt. Golden Spoon ensures that the flavor exactly fits its name. "The peanut butter flavor cannot taste just kind of like peanut butter. It must taste exactly like peanut butter," Villafana said.

Fun fact: "We created the first chocolate-flavored yogurt, sometime in the early-to-mid '80s. Yogurt back then was tart and appealed to a small market of people who were primarily healthy. We wanted to appeal to a much larger audience, and it just exploded for us," Villafana said.

Yogurtland offers a range of fruit toppings year-round, even when the fruit is not in season.

Claim to fame: Though at least 16 flavors are always available, Yogurtland's most coveted flavor remains red velvet cupcake batter (scheduled to return to stores in the fall). Yogurtland also offers a rotating list of special flavors that change every eight weeks. "A healthier option than ice cream," frozen yogurt has "all the (nutritional) attributes from your simple morning yogurt," said Alexis Eldridge, vice president of marketing.

Fan favorite: "Great offerings and they're open late for those late-night cravings." – Oliver Rosales, Placentia

Fun fact: Yogurtland gives out more than 17 million spoons a year, some of them saved as collector's items, Eldridge said. The pink or green spoons are biodegradable, so are especially favored.

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